One upset, one home win, two top seeds
through at Hong Kong Squash Centre
Qualifying complete, it was time for the 'big guns' to enter the
fray, with the top half of the men's and women's draws at Hong
Kong Squash Centre.

It was a long day with a past midnight finish which saw a
solitary upset, a solitary home winner and both top seeds and
defending champions safely through.

The
first round of the 2012 edition of the Hong Kong Open kicked off
at 13.30 on Hong Kong Squash Centre’s Centre Court, with 10
matches scheduled for play at 45-minute intervals, and six on
the 'upstairs' court nine from 16.30. Unsurprisingly the day ran
late.

The first match immediately put the schedule into disarray as
Cameron Pilley became the first player through to round two
after a marathon 82-minute five-game victory over England’s
Chris Simpson. The tall Australian took the first two games and
although Simpson, a qualifier, struck back to level, it was
Pilley who dominated the fifth to progress.

In the next round he’ll meet English sixth seed Peter Barker,
who came from a game down to beat another qualifier, young
Egyptian Karim Abdel Gawad.

The
tin was then lowered as the ladies took to the court. Third seed
Jenny Duncalf edged past Malaysia's Delia Arnold in three
close games, and India's Dipika Pallikal came from a game
down to deny HK wildcard Liu Tsz-Ling.

On the upstairs courts Natalie Grinham beat qualifier
Heba El Torky in straight games, the Dutch former world number
two playing with increased confidence as the match went on.

Following on from that match, Nicolette Fernandes created
the first upset of the day as the Guyanese qualifier downed
Samantha Teran in a gruelling 78-minute five setter of
unrelentingly tough rallies.

Back on the showcourt, Daryl Selby came through a
high-quality but brutal marathon against Alister Walker, taking
it in five after 95 minutes, but Karim Darwish took a
third of that time in despatching wildcard Leo Au in his usual
efficient early-round manner, although the fourth seed needed to
save a game ball in the first.

Back on the glass court, Joey Chan provided the last
chance of home success for today, but fell behind to Kiwi
qualifier Kylie Lindsay. The left-hander rallied to take the
next two games and survived a nervy ending as Lindsay saved four
match balls but couldn't quite catch up in the fourth.

By now we were two hours behind schedule, but the finals three
women's matches alleviated things somewhat as Madeline Perry
beat Amanda Landers-Murphy in 19 minutes and Kasey Brown
despatched Lauren Briggs in 31.

They'll
meet for a place in the quarter-finals, as will Chan and
Nicol David after the Malaysian top seed eased past Sarah
Kippax in 23 minutes to record a 36th consecutive win in Hong
Kong, setting up what is sure to be a noisy second round on
Wednesday.

That left two men's matches to go on the showcourt, starting
with an all-English match between defending champion James
Willstrop and Adrian Grant.

Grant took the lead in an attritional first game but the world
number one bounced back to take the next tow, and to claw back
from a deficit in the fourth to take the match.

Three hours after their scheduled time, at 11.15, Ong Beng
Hee and Miguel Angel Rodriguez started the last match of the
day, which naturally went the distance as the Malaysian
prevailed in five games after 75 minutes to set up a last
sixteen meeting with Willstrop.

What
would you say if I told you that Mr Pilley is in fact a real
blond? Listen to that.

First game, he is up 9/5, and finds himself fighting to win the
game, 8/9, to take it 11/8. Second game, he is up 6/2, and Chris
claws back to 6/7. Third, Mr Pilley now leading 2 games up, is
also up in the 3rd, 5/1. Chris will catch up with him at 5/5 to
clinch the game on his 4th game ball, 12/10. Fourth, Cam never
showed up, letting Chris walk away with a stunning game. And in
the 5th, Play it again Cam, 6/2 up, and Chris back at 6/7, only
to lose the game and match 11/8 after 82m of excellent squash
indeed.

Chris
Simpson, I’ve known him from the juniors, and he’s got the game
to really bother the Australian.

He plays tight squash, excellent length and glued to the wall
drives, good lobs, and a stunning backhand drop shot that he
could play on the head from the changing rooms. It took the
young Englishman a few minutes to get used to the ridiculous
pace Cameron plays at, but once he took the measure of his
opponent/court, Chris became more accurate, more lethal, and was
able to push the Australian out of his comfort zone beautifully.

This time was the first time those two play, and Cameron
clinched the victory on experience “when it counts”. But Chris
is asking serious questions to the top players, and I bet my
keyboard that he is soon about to get some answers….

"It’s
like I was playing to 6 or something!

I go on with a good game plan, I follow it for the first half of
the game, and then, I think, ok, I’ve got this, I’m going to
win. But then again, when a player is down, he’s bound to change
something isn’t he….

I really got to learn my lesson…"

"I
had a few of those recently, long 5 setters, and I need to nick
of the them to get a breakthrough.

I think something, when you want something so much, you want it
too much, and when it comes down to 50/50, against a player
that’s been there before, that got the experience, and wants it,
but not too much, it goes his way.

Of course, I’m happy to come back from 2/0 down against Cameron,
but…"

How
to describe Karim to you if you never saw him. Imagine a player
with Shabana’s hands, Ramy’s retrieving, and Daryl’s laid back?
That’s the one. He is sooo gifted that boy, and I really enjoy
watching him play, a fair player, doesn’t block, calls his
double bounces.

I just like the boy, who really remind me of a young Shabana
“especially the “taking the opponent to the throat and not
letting go” part”, laughed Shabana himself about the young man….

And Peter was a bit surprised I guess by the speed on the court,
the racquet skills and the change of angles coming from his
opponent. But quickly, the Englishman started taking the game to
Karim, playing shorter and shorter, more and more aggressive,
and really making him work an awful lot. The fact that now Peter
has more layers to his game and can attack at the front
beautifully while pinning his opponent to the backwall didn’t
hurt his game….

"No,
I was not tired from yesterday. It’s just, well, I never played
him so… I was happy with my first game, and also with the way I
played up to the middle of the second, but from that point on,
he changed his game and started cutting me off and volleying a
lot. That really played on my mind, and I just couldn’t come
back to my game plan.

But I have wanted to play against Peter for so long, it’s such a
good experience for me…"

DIPIKA NERVOUS, TSZ LING ASSERTIVEIt
was the first time I was watching this young HK player, and I
really enjoyed her style. She is extremely strong physically,
very spirited, and like to hit the ball close to the tin, and
very hard.

Only little floor, she is soooo willing, soooo wanting to do
good, she made get a bit too tight, and maybe could do with
relaxing a bit and enjoying her squash a bit more. But I really
think she is one to be watched for the future.

Whereas Dipika bless her, she was away with the fairies to start
with, a bit of nerves, a bit of… I don’t know what goes on in
gorgeous girls’ brain do I.

But thanks to her coach Sarah Fitz-Gerald and a strong support
group, mum, dad and friends, she managed to pull through a match
that could have easily be a 3/2 against her…

I’ve
been playing Tsz Ling all our junior career, so I know her very
well, and I am aware of how dangerous she can be. She is one of
the up and coming player from HK, and I have to say I was a bit
nervous when we started the match, to play her here, in front of
her home crowd.

In the second game, I stepped up the court, and to put it like
Sarah told me I “try and find the fire in your belly”!

In the third, I was lucky to get a few tins out of her, and I
stayed in there and gave it a big push. I think the glass court
suits me, it’s on there I won the tournament in December, and it
was nice to be back here…

Not sure how long
this was, but I can tell you that every minute, every second was
hard fought, that we fought as hard as we could, but with the
respect with both have for each other.

I’ve known Ali for years, and although I’m very happy, very very
happy to win, I can’t help feeling for him. We both are working
very hard, we both have been knocking at the door for a while,
and we both deserve a break. We both deserve better, and yet,
one of us have to go home….

Both of us dominated the game at times, I managed to control the
end, but I really had to give it a bit push from 8/4 down in the
2nd.

My wife Lucie is expecting our baby and carrying it, she is
working very hard in London, much more than me, the very least I
can do is bringing the mortgage back home.

Today, Ali and I played as hard as we could, but in the right
spirit…..

It was a good match, but it’s frustrating to think that the best
chance I had all season was actually playing Daryl, world number
10. I have played James, Nick, Shabana and Karim, all first
round. So, yes, a bit frustrating…

But I was a pleasure to play Daryl, we are good friends. It was
a good, hard, fair game….

What
a game of squash that was people. If you missed it on SquashTV,
please go and buy the video!

Fair game, and yet, my GOD did they send to each other
everything but the changing room sink! Played at a very fast
pace indeed, extremely accurate, ridiculous retrieving, lethal
attacking, a few shocking decisions, but then again, it wouldn’t
be HK with them, would it, and two warriors giving it all on
there, earning the respect and appreciation of the crowd,
delighted that it went to a 5 setter in 95m….

I guess the turning point was when Ali was leading one game up,
and 8/4 up, looking pretty good out there, as he really was
putting Daryl under enormous pressure. But seven points later,
it was Daryl that was walking off court, having levelled the
game to 1/1….

Ali took an excellent start in the 3rd, 3/0, but Daryl wouldn’t
be shaken off, and slowly clawed back to overtake his mate 9/6
then 10/7. Ali fought very hard, but on a no let lose the game
11/8. That loss didn’t seemed to have affected him neither
physically nor mentally. He dominated the 4th, and from the
middle of that game, the 5 setter stamp was floating in the
air….

And
a decider we had. An awfully bad start for the Botwana man, 1/4,
but who comes back to 4/5. Still, Daryl looked the fresher on
there, and “quickly” gets to match ball, 10/6, thanks to a few
errors from Ali – who made very few during the first 2 games, 2
actually, but increased the numbers after that.

There was a “Kodak moment” when at 8/10, Daryl and Ali just
bumped into each other, it was a match ball for crying out loud.

And they still smiled, and their friendship was lightening the
court. Sorry, I’m a sucker for those moments…

Still, we needed a winner, and today, Daryl was the one. But
what a great match we had. Loved every minute of it.

LAUREN AT TIMES,
KASEY MOST OF THE TIMES
It was a bit of an up and down game for English girl Lauren
Briggs today. Great spells of superb squash, beautiful lobs that
die in the corners, nice volleying millimetres from the tin,
accurate squash that really put the Australian Kasey Brown under
a heck of pressure, and suddenly, length gone, going for a bit
too much, too complicated, and from too far back, opening the
court to a very grateful Kasey!

Frustration grew quite rightly in Lauren’s, as Kasey was
dominating more and more the middle of the court. At 7/2 down in
the 3rd, a good reaction from Lauren that came back to 5/7, but
again, a bit too much from too far back, and Kasey “déroule”,
finishes it off nicely, 11/6 to win comfortably 3/0.

Lauren
is one of those players to whom you can never take an inch to,
because she’ll grab it! I’ve tried to stay away from her
backhand volley, she can do a lot with it, and she got a few
winners there at the start of the match. After that, she granted
me a few errors, and I’m very happy to win in three.

Happy that that boast is working fine, I’ve been working a lot
on it, I think it suits this court very well, and I hope it’ll
keep on working for my next match.

It’s
the first time I was playing Ryan, and I had heard how talented
he was. I didn’t know how to play him, so I asked my brother who
had played him last year in Qatar, and he told me to stay ahead
from his forehand volley, and keep it to the backhand, which is
generally the game plan when you are playing against a
lefthander. I think I stuck to that for most of the match.

In the third game, I started a bit slow, and he got a good lead.
And at 10/8, I remembered the error I was making when I was
playing top guys when I was younger, I was so eager to win the
point I was going for too much. And I feel that’s what happened
today to Ryan, he went for too much, and handed me the game. But
that’s experience, and once he’s got a bit more of that, he’ll
be very dangerous indeed.

It was a good first round, very happy to have a 3/0 win, a good
day of rest tomorrow, and after that, Borja. We always have very
tough matches together, but very fair, and we are actually good
friends. So looking forward to our encounter…

On
a personal note, I would like to thank the organisers for
putting on such a great tournament, and we all hope that the IOC
is going to be impressed with us, with the settings. Thanks to
the efforts of everybody, WSF, PSA, WSA, the media – squashsite
in particular, we hope that we’ll get to the 2020 Olympics. And
I’ll be 28, 29 by then, the moment when players normally reach
their peak, so I really, really want it badly, maybe more than
anybody else!!!!

I played a couple of silly shots at the end, I’m trying to
change a few things, but the “old me” came out there…

He played at a very fast pace, I was feeling a bit slow, but I
guess it was more about him playing really fast.

I had a busy month, I went to Dayton, then won the tournament in
Toronto, and flew straight here. So, happy to qualify, but a bit
flat really, and I really had to be at the top of my game to be
somebody like Mohamed….

LAST ONES…
As I’m starting to write those last words on the page, it’s
12.30 am, so here are the two shortest reports I’ll probably
ever write in my life!

First,
James versus Adrian. Adrian, after not such a good season, had
decided to trim down and get fitter. Hence, instead of losing
his normal two first games, just played remarkable squash at a
very fast pace to take the first game. He kept on putting
pressure on the W1 up to 6/2 in the second.

But James just kept his cool, as I’m sure he was prepared for a
battle (the last one those two played was last year in the
British Grand Prix, where Adrian beat James in 83 for only 4
games), and slowly, reverse the pressure to force a few errors
out of his opponent.

The ball was dead as it comes – very cold court – and James’
superb attacks just made immense damage, although Adrian found a
few great short game of his own. It all came down to a few
errors here and there from Adrian, really not much between the
players. But it’s James today that takes the cake…

To
be noted that I’m still trying to understand the line the
referees took for the numerous no lets they gave against Adrian.
I’m sure there is a logic there, I just didn’t find it….

And now for Beng Hee China Man against Miguel Rubber Ball. I
think Miguel would have been more at his ease on court 9, with
warmer conditions. But my lord did those two worked hard to get
each and every point. Ridiculous pace, lovely angle, great
spirit on court…

Beng Hee hit the self destruct button a few times – he wouldn’t
be BH otherwise – but in the end, managed to take a great start
in the 5th, against a Miguel a bit tired from retrieving the
irretrievable again and again, and again on a dead court, with a
dead ball, and kept his lead up to the end….